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Autoimmune Disease Clustering at ENDO 2019
A twin registry database study was presented at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting (ENDO 2019) in New Orleans, showed that that having autoimmune disease significantly increases the risk of other autoimmune disorders and that autoimmune clustering was highest in Addison's disease and vit
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RheumNow Podcast - MTX vs. Etanercept in Psoriatic Arthritis (2.15.19)
Dr. Jack Cush discusses the news from the past week on RheumNow.com - including the SEAM trial, MRI guided T2T, biologics and infection, contraceptive use, ANA negative lupus, etc.
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Differing Effects of Smoking and HLA-DRB1 in Seropositive Rheumatoids
Analyses from the Swedish EIRA incident rheumatoid arthritis cohort study shows that smoking and HLA-DRB1 exert differential effects on serologically defined RA subsets - but that the strongest influence was seen in double positive (CCP+, RF+) individuals.
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Ten Contemporary Challenges Facing Lupus Treatment
A group of French researchers have pooled their interests to identify the challenges ahead in the management of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
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Genetic Diagnosis for Previously Undiagnosed Disorders
The NEJM has reported the NIH's Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) study results of genetically identifying new diseases from prospectively followed persons with undiagnosed disorders.
The UDN was formed in 2014 as a network of seven clinical sites, two sequencing cores, a coordinating center, central biorepository, a metabolomics core, and a model organisms screening center. It was established to apply a multidisciplinary model in the evaluation of the most challenging cases and to identify the biologic characteristics of newly discovered diseases.
RheumNow Podcast – Can RA Be Prevented (12.7.18)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and new journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com:
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It's the Genes, Not the Diet that Raises Urate
Researchers from New Zealand find that in contrast with genetic contributions, diet explains very little variation in serum urate levels in the general population.
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The RheumNow Week in Review – No Good Gout (8.10.18)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and latest journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com. Info on Surgery and Hip Fractures, Gout drugs abandoned, Allopurinol escalation, hydroxychloroquine drug levels, how to treat scleroderma in India and exactly who gets back pain.
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Selective Use of HLA-B*5801 Testing in Gout
The current edition of JAMA Internal Medicine describes an Asian gout patient who presents with an allopurinol hypersensitivity reaction that could have been diagnosed by testing for HLA-B*5801.
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Epigenetic Link in Rheumatoid Arthritis to Huntington's Disease
Researchers at University of California San Diego School and the Icahn School of Medicine have found a high-resolution epigenomic landscape of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that overlaps with that seen in Huntington's disease, suggesting potentially new unanticipated pathways that could be devel
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The RheumNow Week in Review – Why Comorbidity is Like the Weather (5.3.18)
Dr. Jack Cush discusses the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.
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Genetic Breakthrough in Systemic JIA
The identification of a genetic susceptibility locus for systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) has important implications for treatment of this severe, poorly understood illness, researchers reported.
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Shared Epitope - Smoking Pathogenic Link Clarified
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has published new research on the mechanistic link between the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) "shared epitope" (SE) risk alleles and environmental triggers such as cigarette smoke that leads to joint inflammation and bony destruction.
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Precision Genetics Can Predict Methotrexate Non-Responders
Investigators from Glasgow and Oxford have identified changes in genomic architecture, represented by a chromosome conformation signature, that can predict nonresponse to methotrexate in early rheumatoid arthritis patients.
Recognizing that studies show 35–59% of RA patients do not achieve clinically meaningful responses after starting MTX, they sought to identify a pattern of genetic changes in 59 early RA patients that would predict poor responses to MTX therapy.
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Cumulative Genetic Hit Hypothesis for Lupus
A recent report in Nature Communications has studied multiple nationalities has shown a "disentangled complex HLA multigenic effect" underlying the genetic basis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
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Linkage Between Gut and Joint Immunity in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Pianta, et al have published their findings in the Journal of Clinical Investigation showing that two novel autoantigens, GNS and FLNA, are highly expressed in synovium and share a sequence homology with gut microbesa; thereby providing a potential link between gut mucosal and joint immunity in rheumatoid arthritis.
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Potential Reasons Why Osteoarthritis Preferentially Affects Women
Researchers from Augusta University have examined exosomes from patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) to enhance our molecular understanding of the pathogenesis of OA. (Citation source http://buff.ly/2tuDZ3v)
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First Degree Relatives and the Risk of Spondyloarthritis
The risk of developing ankylosing spondylitis (AS) if you are HLA-B27+ and a first degree relative is often said to be 20%.
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RheumNow Week in Review – 7 October 2016
Dr. Jack Cush reviews highlights from the journals and news this week on RheumNow.com.
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Canakinumab Yields Genetic and Disease Modifying Effects in TRAPS Patients
Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS) is an autosomal-dominant autoinflammatory disease resulting from mutations of the TNF super family receptor 1A (TNFRSF1A) gene.